It pains us to criticize Zetterberg, it really does. He’s our future captain, a great hockey player, and he has a smokin’ hot fiance. But sometimes you have to be held accountable. I didn’t want to do it. VooX over at Abel to Yzerman didn’t want to do it, but we’re just calling it like we see it. And Zetterberg sees it too.

Here’s what he told the Detroit News when asked about his season so far…

“It hasn’t been fantastic, that’s for sure. It’s something I am not happy about, but you can’t look back. I just have to keep going, work hard and do things right.”

Zetterberg’s streak of 30+ goal seasons will in all likelihood end at four as he has only 16 games left to net the 12 goals needed.

“After getting back from the shoulder injury, it’s been better. After the Olympic break I felt good. I just have to get more points on the board to help the team win. I don’t really count chances, but I’ve had enough to where I should be able to score some goals.”

Well Babcock is moving Valterri Filppula to second line winger with Zetterberg and Dan Cleary. This, according to Babcock, will increase playing time for Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Filppula who may rotate in as the center for the third line composed of Todd Bertuzzi, Jason Williams, and Drew Miller.

“What we often do there is overplay the other centers, rotate them in on that third line once in a while. All three of those guys played 18 minutes (against Calgary), which is good. But they can probably play another minute or minute and a half. I can put them on the other line and spread it out more.”–Mike Babcock

We’ll see how this little experiment goes this evening against Pinky’s Wild.